Myanmar Assures ASEAN Aung San Suu Kyi is Well; Envoy Seeks Access

Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is reportedly in good health, according to the country's foreign minister. This assurance was conveyed to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers during an informal meeting in Bangkok on Sunday, the first such in-person gathering since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.

Maria Theresa Lazaro, the Philippines' foreign minister and ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, stated that the Myanmar counterpart "assured us that she's in good health and that the premise of how he said this is that she is a relative, she's a sister and therefore we will take care of her." Lazaro has been seeking access to the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

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My recollection of the statement of the Myanmar foreign minister on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she's in good health and that the premise of how he said this is that she is a relative, she's a sister and therefore we will take care of her.

Aung San Suu Kyi is currently serving a 27-year sentence, recently commuted by one-third, following a series of convictions on charges her supporters argue were politically motivated to sideline her. These charges include incitement, corruption, election fraud, and violations of state secrets law. She has maintained her innocence.

The meeting aimed to revive a stalled five-point peace initiative to end the civil war that has engulfed Myanmar since the coup, claiming an estimated 100,000 lives and displacing millions. Myanmar's leadership has been excluded from high-level ASEAN meetings due to their failure to implement the peace plan. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow noted that ASEAN ministers expressed a desire for the special envoy to meet Aung San Suu Kyi directly to verify the claims about her well-being.

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We also made our comment that if the ASEAN special envoy could be given the opportunity to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, that would be even better so that we can be able to verify the claims that the foreign minister made.